Roseville Post-Merger: Circa 1999 - 2001 | UP | BNSF | SP | CNW | ATSF | Foreign Power | Leasers

After the Union Pacific acquired the Southern Pacific in 1996, Roseville was quickly gone through, and completely rebuilt from the ground up. The result turned it into Union Pacific's main classification center for freight traffic in and out of Northern California. The years immediately after the merger were a period of intense variety, with new run through agreements and practices being introduced, and any power that could move pulling the trains.

These were the days before the Evolution Series of locomotives obliterated most of the motive power variety on the nation's railroads. With this in mind you will see several rebuilt iterations of second generation motive power, third generation power still going strong, and the railroad's dabbling with 6000 horsepower units.

Colors in this era were far from just a sea of yellow, with plenty of pure untouched, SP, DRGW, CNW, and ATSF units all plying the rails, while their new owners were figuring out more important things than paint. Speaking of paint, several of the unauthorized Roseville 99 Repaint Tunnel Motors are also seen moving around Roseville, which was the last gasp of Scarlet and Gray.

In addition to the mainline movements there is also plenty of local and yard activity, as the scene slowly changes from a mixed bag of paint schemes, to things that are slightly more formalized.

This Hi8 video was taken by George Manley, who made many visits to Roseville over a 3 year period to document this changing scene.

Enjoy this look at trains in Roseville during the dawn of the new millennium!